Visible light cameras are utilized in a variety of imaging applications to capture color or monochrome images. For instance, visible light cameras are typically utilized for daytime applications under ambient light.
Infrared cameras are utilized in a variety of imaging applications to capture thermal emission from objects as infrared images and, therefore, may not be dependent on ambient lighting. For instance, infrared cameras may be utilized for nighttime applications to enhance visibility under low-lighting conditions that typically affect cameras limited to the visible spectral band.
However, there are several drawbacks for conventional nighttime implementation approaches for visible light cameras and infrared cameras. For instance, vehicle operators may have to alternate between displays presenting images from visible light cameras and displays presenting images from infrared cameras to establish a correlation between the visible-band and infrared-band representation of the scene and to determine path obstructions and directions for safe passage. This can be relatively difficult. Even with a split view on a single display, the operator has to constantly switch between each view to determine what in the image may be an obstacle to correlate the output from visible light cameras and infrared cameras in a multi-band camera system.
As a result, there is a need for improved display techniques for providing visible light images and infrared images in an easily viewable manner. There is also a need for improved visible light and infrared camera processing techniques for various applications including, e.g., nighttime applications.